Take advantage of your fears.

Fear is one of the basic response systems. It is quite natural to have fear. In reality, there is no one who does not fear something. We do gain understanding of few things and overcome their fear. Many experiences install a new kind of insecurities and fear in us. Fear as a trigger keeps evolving with us. In childhood, a simple stranger face could trigger fear, while in the corporate system, one may fear interaction with seniors and even public speaking.

When we are born, we fear loud noise. It is something that we have been protected against. Something we may have not experienced pre-birth. Unknown, unexplained and uncertainties are the basic cause if fear. In reality, we learn all our fears. Fears don’t per exist.

Check-out, take a deep introspective look and see, what are the fears that you have learnt to be afraid of?

Fear is not necessarily a negative reaction or emotion. One can leverage own fear to advantage. Here is what you can do.

RECOGNISE WHAT YOU ARE AFRAID. Some fear like falling off the cliff and dying is natural and justified, if you are standing at the edge of the cliff. Otherwise if you have fears without triggers and in non-threatening situations, then they must be evaluated. Your fears are your decision and choice of what you are comfortable being afraid of. These are the boundaries and constraints that you have been imposing on yourself and is the cause of you being in your current situation.

REFRAME FEARS. Use your fear to your advantage. It’s a good thing, not something to be avoided. Embrace it. The sheer fact that you are anxious in a situation means that you do not have control of your thoughts. Train your mind to think positive and whenever you are anxious, consider that to be a sign of something good and positive to follow.

LIST ALL YOUR FEAR. Be completely honest and naked to yourself when you list down all your fears. Write the fear, what causes it, And then tries seeing a pattern. By understanding your own model framework of fears, you will be better prepared to face them. In the process, you will be able to eliminate few of your fears by acknowledging and addressing the core issue.

USE FEARS TO GET A HEAD START. To be successful it is essential that you overcome your fears. Most successful people have done that and found it as a necessary step in the process. Conquering fear makes you more capable. The next fear becomes that easier to defeat. Remember, defeating a small fear makes the more significant fears more manageable.

FEAR IS SELF INDUCED. It is you, your understanding, conviction and perception of an event and uncertainties associated with it, that creates fear. Fear is just a feeling. It may have associated physical manifestations like sweating, trembling, etc., but it remains a feeling. It’s for you to decide to feel bad or good, positive and negative. When your life is in danger, your fear, although justified is just a guess work and your perception about the possible outcome. All your feelings and fear, in particular, follow this rule.

CULTIVATE DISCIPLINE. Fear is the result of your mind trying to stop you from doing or experiencing something. This ends up making you uncomfortable. It results’s in your trying to escape the situation. When you repeat the behaviour, the mid recognises a pattern and then triggers fear even in anticipation of future patterns. Use these situations to discipline yourself and your thoughts.

Discipline is after all your abilities to do things that you may not want to do or stop doing what you want to do. It does not need discipline to have a coke or a Pepsi, but it is required to be on diet even after seeing the delicious Lava Cake. It also takes discipline to stop doing something you want.

One of your biggest weapons in killing fear is discipline. Cultivate the habit of discipline.

GET THE HELP YOU NEED. There may be some deep-rooted fears. If that is the cause, one can only say that there must be some really good reason for their manifestation and being deep-seeded. It may be just important and right for you to seek external help to overcome that. Leverage your fear and experiences associated with it as a motivation to get help. There is nothing wrong in getting help, it will only help you move forward in life and reap a new set of benefits.

Fear is not something to be avoided. Fear is a wonderful opportunity to learn about yourself. Leverage fears to give yourself a chance to grow on a personal and professional level.
It’s not ‘JOD DAAR GAYA WHO MAR GAYA’ but ‘IF YOU’RE NOT AFRAID, YOU’RE NOT LIVING’.